Storyville, the BBC’s strand showcasing international documentaries, has announced a new slate of summer specials that will be shown from June, as well as three new commissions to be shown in the coming months, all on BBC Four and iPlayer.
Philippa Kowarsky, commissioning editor, Storyville, says: “Our upcoming new commissions show communities finding and using their voice; whether through Grime music among disenfranchised young people in the UK, challenging the ongoing legacy of slavery in a British overseas territory, or fighting injustice against indigenous people in Norway.”
Kowarksky describes “three powerful films this summer: a 36-minute wonder that asks us to consider what we would do in the face of an imminent nuclear attack; an insight into the lives of individuals experiencing gender transition; and a celebration of a sporting hero whose indelible legacy extends far beyond his success on the tennis court.
Further titles will be announced later in the year.
Summer Specials:
On The Morning You Wake (To The End of The World)
On January 13th, 2018 at 8:08 am, an alert was issued to the 1.4 million citizens of Hawaii, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
This visceral recreation charts the lived experiences of people who, for 38 minutes, had to make impossible decisions about what to do in the face of nuclear violence. The film, which is adapted from a Virtual Reality experience, raises important questions about our preparedness for nuclear war.
The Creative team includes Mike Brett and Steve Jamison of Archer’s Mark, Pierre Zandrowicz and Arnaud Colinart of Atlas V, producer Jo-Jo Ellison and co-producer Kurban Kassam, who collaborated with technology studio Novelab. The script was developed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison in collaboration with Dr Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, whose spoken word poem inspired the film’s title and provides a lyrical framework for each chapter of the experience. Original music is composed by Bobby Krlic (The Haxan Cloak), the award-winning musician behind Ari Aster’s Midsommar soundtrack.
Into My Name / Nel Mio Nome
Nico is 33 years-old, Leo is 30, Andrea 25 and Raff 23: They come from different parts of Italy. They start their gender transition at different times in their lives. Day by day, they boldly face all the obstacles of a strictly binary world. To achieve a fulfilling and dignified life is a matter of survival. They need to be resolute, infinitely patient and can’t hope to get by without seeing the funny side of the whole matter.
Directed by Nicolò Bassetti and produced by Nicolò Bassetti, Lucia Nicolai and Marcello Paolillo. Executive producers are Elliot Page and Gaia Morrione.
Citizen Ashe
Citizen Ashe is the story of sports legend and social activist Arthur Ashe. Known to most by his stellar sports career – Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open winner and the first black player to be selected for the US Davis Cup Team – this film uncovers Ashe’s personal evolution; how his activism grew and embraced not only the Civil Right movement and African-Americans but all oppressed peoples throughout the world. Ashe died of AIDS-related complications in 1993 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom the same year.
Directed by Rex Miller and Sam Pollard
Producers: Rex Miller, Beth Hubbard, Anna Godas, Steven Cantor, Jamie Schutz, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
Executive Producers: Alex Gibney, Mike Jackson, John Legend, Ty Styklorious , Amy Entelis, Courtney Sexton, William Ackman, Oliver Harbottle, Tony Tabatznik, John Arnhold, Regina K. Scully, David Ulich, Michael Cascio, Dr. Steven Ungerleider, Nina and David Fialkow, Patty Quillin, Geralyn Dreyfous, Rick Rosenthal, David Ellis Acker, David Barden
Upcoming films commissioned by Storyville :
8 Bar: The Evolution of Grime
Grime. They called it “young black kids’ punk rock” – A genre that radio stations wouldn’t play and records that labels didn’t sell. But Grime would not be stopped. With machine gun lyrics that shred eardrums and syncopated electronics that pound the chest like a sledgehammer, Grime was a product of social unrest, urban culture and disenfranchised youth colliding in the UK in the early 2000s. It didn’t just rouse a grassroots, underground audience, today Grime is surging in popularity all over the globe and widely influencing top music charts. This is the origin story of the genre’s roots.
BMG, BBC Film and BBC Storyville in association with Gunpowder & Sky present a My Accomplice production.
A film by Ewen Spencer, David Upshal, Aleksandra Bilic, Jamie Clark. Executive producers are William Kennedy, Stuart Souter, Janet H. A. Brown, Jake Hanly, Mandy Chang, Rose Garnett, Keoni Kailimai
A Story of Bones
As the Chief Environmental Officer for Saint Helena’s troubled £285m ($350m) airport project, Annina Van Neel learned of the island’s most terrible atrocity – an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans in Rupert’s Valley. It is one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade still on earth.
Haunted by this historical injustice, Annina now fights alongside renowned African American preservationist Peggy King Jorde and a group of disenfranchised islanders – many of them descendants of the formerly enslaved – for the proper memorialisation of these forgotten victims. The resistance they face exposes disturbing truths about the UK’s colonial past and present.
BFI Doc Society presents in association with BBC Storyville an Archer’s Mark production in association with PT Film & Turnover Films.
Directed by Joseph Curran & Dominic Aubrey de Vere; produced by Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo. Executive producers are Lisa Marie Russo, Lucie Kon, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison
Beneath the Surface
A tip-off in 2014 enabled a group of journalists to gain access to silenced stories of abuse from indigenous Sámi women, men and children. Generations of negligence and suffering are investigated through recovered evidence and unseen archival footage. At court, the community stands up to Norwegian authorities, revealing racial sub-order and the meaning of generational trauma. What unfolds is a fight to break a cycle of racial subordination and injustice. One community’s struggles to achieve lasting change and a legacy of safety for future generations.
In collaboration with NRK and BBC Storyville.
Directed by Alexander Niakaris Irvine-Cox
Producer: Ingvil Giske
Executive Producers: Fiona Stourton, Andre Singer, Mandy Chang, Lucie Kon
Story Image: Gerry Cranham / Offside
Pippa Considine
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